SP Newsletter No.326
The August 21 Federal election has confirmed the inability of either Labor or the Coalition to convince a majority of Australian voters to support their right-wing policies. Neither party emerged with a clear mandate to govern.
Labor’s vote clearly suffered due to their inaction on climate change, scapegoating of refugees and support for [...]

SP Newsletter No.325
The Australian Federal election held on August 21 delivered a hung parliament – the first in 70 years. Neither the Labor Party led by Julia Gillard nor the Coalition led by Tony Abbott won the 76 seats required to form a government. The result is both a reflection of the lack of enthusiasm [...]

SP Newsletter No.324
Since taking over as PM from Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard has back tracked on a number of Labor policies. One such reversal has been the rejection of Rudd’s ‘Big Australia’ policy, which was intended to allow the nations population to grow to 35 million by 2050. Gillard stands for “not a big Australia, [...]

SP Newsletter No.323
Several months ago the Socialist Party began a campaign to get Yarra City Council to stock books and magazines of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community in its libraries.
Often the local library is the only safe space for young people who are coming out. At school and even [...]

Registered Nurse and Sydney Socialist Party member Ger Hughes looks at Labor’s healthcare reforms and outlines a socialist solution to the crisis in healthcare.
The Australian public health system is in crisis. Common occurrences are long surgical waiting lists, run down infrastructure, low staff morale and overcrowded emergency departments and wards.
The condition that the Australian [...]

SP Newsletter No.322
On June 24th Australia inherited its first ever female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Some have hailed this as a great achievement in the struggle for women’s rights, regardless of the fact that Australian voters had no participation in the event.
While her ascension can be attributed to male factional leaders within the Labor Party, [...]

Workers need a party of their own!
Julia Gillard has called the Federal election for August 21, just weeks after her coup against Kevin Rudd. While for now Gillard is more electable than Rudd, there has been no fundamental shift in Labor policies - the only exception being the cave in to the mining bosses.
Both Gillard’s’ [...]

Just a week after becoming PM Julia Gillard announced a complete back down on the Resources Super Profits Tax (RSPT). Billions of dollars of concessions were made to the three big mining companies; BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata. Delighted with the windfall, the mining giants decided to call off their $100 million anti-government advertising [...]

Workers from the Kennon Auto factory in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Preston went on strike in early July. After being denied a pay rise for more than 3 years these low paid workers decided to stop work and set up a picket line outside the plant.
The employer tried to bully the workers into signing a [...]

SP Newsletter No.321
For Australian voters the upcoming Federal election will be a choice between who will carry out the least severe cuts to jobs and services. While the massive stimulus packages helped keep Australia out of a technical recession, the cost has been the racking up of a huge debt. Both Labor and the Liberals [...]